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Week 1 of 80 “Not Impressed with our Debt” – The Start and the Plan

Yesterday’s post laid it all out. “I am not impressed with our debt” “This is for the birds”

I said I wanted to tackle about $35,000 in debt in the next 80 weeks. Here is the starting number, give or take.

$35,924

The plan is pretty simple. We are going to take the majority of my husband’s paycheck and plow it into the debt each week and live off of my paychecks. I’ll talk about what we do for a living in another post. Now keep this in mind, we have, in the past, lived paycheck to paycheck so closely that most weeks even going out to the movies would break us. So what has changed? Again that’s for another post 🙂

Each week I will pay a large amount into just one of our debts. The first debt I am tackling is my Old Navy Card. This isn’t a store card it’s a Mastercard. With 28% interest!

Believe me I have tried for YEARS to get rid of this card and I swear it has never gone down, no matter what I tried to do. I called them to see if they would give me a better rate of interested and they flat out said NOPE. They do not give a lower interest rate, period. So I fixed them! I applied for a credit card through my local credit union and transferred the entire amount to the new card with 0% interest for 12 months. That 12 months is up in November and I want to get it paid off before the interest starts again.

The balance on that is about $6500.

Each month I will give you an update on the individual debt and the whole picture. Each week I will update you on how I am doing keeping the cost of living down for us.

Hey Mary Margaret – Good for you for tackling this huge stressor! And kudos for putting it out there to inspire others and give yourself accountability. I’m wondering if you have an emergency fund so that the things you mentioned in the previous comment don’t waylay your efforts. Most financial/get out of debt articles I have read recommend a $500-$1000 savings account before paying off debt. Just curious if you did this or are focusing on debt first.

Hi Tracy! In my second post next week that is addressed more or less. I will talk about “the rules” of my plan. For me an emergency fund set aside wouldn’t have even helped touch the emergencies I have experienced in the last 8 years of our marriage. Lol. Each time we have worked through those issues and still have paid off enormous debt.

And I would encourage you to take the card and either cut it up, or put it in the freezer (in ice) so that it is difficult to use! I know someone who actually did that! This is a great step forward for you, and it will get easier every month. Sending you a hug!

You know we have paid them off so many times but life happens and the second we open that door again the floodgates open and BAM we are right back up there again. The car breaks down or medical bills happen or the hot water tank dies. I think the difference this time is we are not paying support anymore and the other difference I’ll talk a out in another post 🙂 thank you so much for the encouragement Kathy!

Congratulations, Mary Margaret, on your new project! I’m one of those people who, as Kathy mentioned, actually froze my credit card in ice in the freezer for several months. 🙂 I’ll be cheering you on from blogland!

That sounds like a sensible start to your plan. It’s so easy to let those cards creep up.
I found myself with credit card debt on three different cards. None maxed out, but enough on them so that I was paying just the interest each month. I did something similar to you to solve that problem, I took out a bank loan with very low interest and a fixed monthly payment that was within our means. Now, I still have two credit cards, but they’re paid off in full each month and I keep a very close eye on what I’m spending on them.